infrastructure

A new report examining the targets and intended effects of this week’s massive malware attack comes up with some significant insights. The attack, initially believed to be a variation of commercial malware software known as Petya, appeared to be a vast ransomware scheme. As the story developed, it became clear that the attack was more destructive than it was lucrative. Read More

Back in February, the Facebook-led Telecom Infrastructure Project led a call to put $170 million into startups focusing on solutions to improve infrastructure: the switching technologies, engineering, cabling and other components that go into building networking for internet and other communications services. Today comes one more advance on that front: Facebook and the TIP are working… Read More

Mirantis, one of the earliest players in the OpenStack ecosystem, today announced that it will end-of-life Mirantis OpenStack support in September 2019. The Mirantis Cloud Platform, which combines OpenStack with the Kubernetes container platform (or which could even be used to run Kubernetes separately), is going to take its place.
While Mirantis is obviously not getting out of the OpenStack… Read More

A new company called Tizeti, which is launching in the latest batch of startups to come from Y Combinator, is proposing a simple solution to the connectivity problem… Build more towers, more cheaply, and offer internet services at a cost that makes sense for consumers in the urban environments where most people actually live. Read More

While Google is using MWC to show off some of its advances in native apps on mobile devices — specifically in chat apps — the world’s biggest chat app company is doing something completely different. Today, Facebook announced that it is building a 770-kilometer (500-mile) fiber backhaul network in Uganda, in partnership with India’s Airtel and wholesale provider… Read More

Why is it important to invest via VCs, and do they add value further to the money they invest into a growth business? Furthermore, what role do physical transport links play in terms of business success and innovation in this, the digital age? Read More

President-elect Trump has called for a trillion dollars in infrastructure investment, but he wants the private sector to play a critical role. Fortunately, one of our nation’s immediate infrastructure needs will not have to rely on the federal government at all. Read More

Latest Crunch Report

America’s dependence on technology and web-based communication has forever changed the way government functions at every level. But it’s not only highly sensitive data and intellectual property that government officials must keep secure; America’s access to drinking water, electricity, transportation networks and countless other types of critical infrastructure are at risk… Read More

While both political parties seem to agree that Congress should spend several hundred billion dollars on infrastructure, their spending plans ignore one of the most woefully out-of-date pieces of American infrastructure.
Taxpayers should fund not just asphalt and concrete but also stimulate a huge increase in private investment for power. And not just power, but renewable power.
No less an… Read More

In the early 1900s, large organizations needed another type of CEO: Chief Electricity Officer. Before there was an accessible and reliable power grid to plug into, organizations that needed electricity employed a CEO to make sure they had steady and cheap access to this vital commodity. Given the aging data center architecture, it’s now the Chief Innovation Officer who is… Read More

Here is some news you don’t read every day: Microsoft and Facebook today announced that they are teaming up to build a subsea cable across the Atlantic that will connect Virginia Beach, Virginia, with Bilbao, Spain.
The companies say the so-called MAREA cable will allow them to “meet the growing customer demand for high speed, reliable connections for cloud and online services… Read More

Cisco has just announced that it is buying UK-based Ubiquisys for $310 million to beef up its business in femtocells and small cells, technologies that help improve connectivity on mobile data networks indoors and short-range outdoor spaces. The deal is one of the biggest exits in European tech in the last several years. Read More

As it already warned, ZTE posted its second-straight quarterly loss, due to vastly trimmed margins in emerging markets, as well as contract delays and falling handset sales in China.
It made a net loss of 1.14 billion yuan ($183 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with its net income of 991.16 million yuan a year prior. Sales in the fourth quarter also fell 16 percent to… Read More

This morning, JDSU, a specialist in optical networking software, announced that it would pay $85 million in cash to acquire Arieso, a UK-based startup that makes location-aware networking software to improve mobile carriers’ network performance. Arieso’s clients include AT&T, Telefonica, MTN in Africa and Vodafone Group. Read More

Wikipedia and all of its related projects are obviously driven by the work of thousands of volunteers. Interestingly, though, while Wikipedia runs on top of an open-source stack, it’s been traditionally very hard for volunteers to help the organization run its sites. Most of that work is currently done by paid employees. For about a year and a half, though, the Wikimedia Foundation… Read More

Kudos to O2, the Telefónica-owned mobile operator, for planning a country-wide free Wi-Fi network. That country just so happens to be the UK, the home of “dark forces.” Hmm. The network should be fully operational by 2013. Read More